CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I: ORIENTATION -- CHAPTER 1 A Wide-Angle View -- CHAPTER 2 Four Models of Christian Otherworld Journey Narration -- The Otherworld Journey as Apocalypse: The Vision of St. Paul -- The Otherworld Journey as Miracle Story: The Dialogues of Gregory the Great -- The Otherworld Journey as Conversion: The Vision of Drythelm -- The Otherworld Journey as Pilgrimage: St. Patrick's Purgatory -- PART II: MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN RETURN-FROM-DEATH STORIES: A THEMATIC TREATMENT -- CHAPTER 3 The Other World: Medieval Itineraries -- Exit from the Body -- The Guide -- The Journey -- CHAPTER 4 Obstacles -- Fire -- The Test-Bridge -- Encounter with Deeds -- CHAPTER 5 Reentry -- The Visionary Transformed -- The Visionary as Messenger -- The Narrator as Messenger -- Vision and Revision -- Interpretation of Visions -- PART III: THE MODERN NEAR-DEATH NARRATIVE: A THEMATIC AND COMPARATIVE TREATMENT -- CHAPTER 6 From Deathbed Visions to Life After Life -- Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Precursors -- Life After Life: A New Phase -- The Researchers -- CHAPTER 7 The Other World: Modern Itineraries -- Attitudes toward Death and Dying -- Images of the Soul -- Liminality -- The Journey -- The Light -- Judgment -- "Falling into Heaven": Mystical States and Visions of the Whole -- Otherworld Topography -- Otherworld Demography -- CHAPTER 8 Back to Life -- Approaching the Point of No Return -- The Visionary Transformed -- The Visionary and the Interviewer -- PART IV: THE INTERPRETATION OF NEAR-DEATH VISIONS -- CHAPTER 9 Ecstatics and Statistics -- Credentials -- Verification -- CHAPTER 10 Explanations and Counterexplanations -- Were They Dead? -- Models of Death -- "Natural" Causes -- Counterarguments -- CHAPTER 11 Evaluating Near-Death Testimony -- Experiential Claims -- Double Vision -- Corporeal Imagery -- The Question of Interpretation.

Another World to Live In -- Orientation -- APPENDIX: Chronology of Medieval Visions -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W.